First project of 2016

 I have finished my coat. I did everything I wanted to do on this coat, with the exception of handworked buttonholes. After some practise, I was not pleased with my handiwork and opted to go over the buttonholes a second time by machine. The result was just fine by me. And so I sewed on the buttons and called it done.

View of the inside of the coat. All the gunk inside will only be known to me, and the beautiful Kasha lining (flannel-backed satin) covers everything up.

Yes, we still have our old faithful dog Teddy who is now 15 years old. He is in great shape for his age and I attribute that to good genes plus all the exercise we have given him over the years. Even last summer, he jumped over obstacles that the grandchildren had set up when they pretended to be horses. Teddy joined right in.

So far, winter has not been bad. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will not get the kind of weather we had last year. So far, I'm not complaining. The sidewalks are clear and it isn't that cold, so I can keep up my regular walking.

Next up, some shorter projects to give me some new clothes to take to Texas in February. I hear that this is when the bluebonnets bloom, I really hope to see them this time.

Coat progress

 

 

I am really keen to get going on this coat, and today dawned with nothing in particular to do except to sew!

 

 

In the morning, I cut out all the pattern pieces, and then found some scrap fabric that would work for a muslin. It always surprises me how little time a muslin actually takes and it is so worth taking that time, in order to be sure of your fit before cutting into the good stuff.

 

 

My muslin showed that the shoulder line was too long on me, so I removed 5/8" from the end and blended that line back into the armscye. This will make the sleeve fit better, which seemed to have a little bit too much ease in it to work well.

 

I had already shortened the pattern in the upper chest area, and again just above the waist. And removed 2" from the sleeves; yes I have short arms.

 

I sewed the fronts and backs together, sewed on the under collar, sewed the facings over the collar and set in one sleeve. Up to the full length mirror with shoulder pads in hand. A couple of things were clear right away. I needed more room over the tummy and hip area, and the coat was too short.

 

So I added 3/8" to the seams of the center front/side front and center back/side back. The side seams were in the right place, which made me decide to add the extra at those inside seams, rather than at the sides. The overall length is easy to fix; simply cut the pattern pieces longer.

 

All of this was done by 2 pm, so I took the dog out for a walk; it is a gorgeous fall day here. And then back to the drawing board. Yes, there was time to cut the fabric and the lining. And whoa, what did I find in my stash?  The perfect shade of blue Kasha lining so I don't have to use the cream stuff I bought the other day.

 

Over night I remembered that I had a bolt of this blue Kasha from years ago, when I was teaching outerwear classes for MacPhee Workshops. Kasha lining is satin lining fused to thin flannelette, so you are basically underlining the coat when you use this stuff. It is much warmer than other linings and Canadian seamstresses are quite familiar with it, as our winters are so cold.



 

 

So here is the coat all laid out, you can see the lining at the top, that shiny blue stuff. Lovely firm lining that is perfect for this weight of wool coating.

 

And yesterday, I pulled some tailoring books out of my sewing library and I settled on these two reference books. The Singer Tailoring book is a dream, with lots of beautiful photos to show you just how things should look. The garments are dated, but the techniques haven't changed for what I want to do, so it will be my #1 reference. The Palmer/Pletsch book is an easy read, with some good fitting tips and some shortcuts that may just come in handy.

 

All of this is now packed up in a box, and the next step is to cut the hair canvas and sew that in by hand. I am looking forward to that peaceful hand stitching. And hair canvas has never disappointed me.

 

One year I taught a jacket class and one student decided to make herself a winter coat. This was over 20 years ago, and I had only ever used sew-in interfacings. So I recommended that she use hair canvas in her coat and I showed her how to put it in. She later told me that coat was her essential piece of clothing that winter, and she wore it for a long time. She thought the method of all that hand-stitching was a bit tedious to begin with, but she didn't regret it later when the coat continued to look good after months of wearing.

 

Buttonholes are a concern at this point. I could do bound buttonholes, but don't want to. I want hand-done keyhole buttonholes. But I know that mine are pathetic. Unless I get some practice in and get much better at them, I think I might just take this to a tailor here in town and pay him to make them once the coat is at that point. There are two tailors who could do this; one is Mr. Chung who makes suits for men, and another is a tailor who specializes in military apparel. Perhaps I will ask to see samples of their work before committing to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Jacket #2

They say women can change their minds as much as they like, so that will be my excuse. Having posted pics of the brocade and McCalls jackets in the previous post, now I am going with a different project altogether.

I will blame it on the weather. It is cold here, and my overcoat selection is poor. One down-filled coat for walking the dog and running errands, it really does keep me warm as toast. But it doesn't look so good with anything other than casual pants. And I have one knee-length black coat for any other occasion. I also have one very long grey tweed coat, but I feel overwhelmed in it, given its length and bulk. At 5'1" tall, I can't carry off that much fabric.

So I decided that the brocade jean jacket could wait a few weeks and I would make a winter coat. The pattern is Butterick 5399, the shorter version and the fabric is a squishy wool coating that I had in the stash. I even have the satin-backed lining to go with it. Plus raglan shoulder pads and hair canvas for interfacing and thread. The only thing missing is the buttons, which I always prefer to buy at the end once the garment is finished.



I prefer using hair canvas on wool coating. I have had some bad experiences with fusing interfacing to coating; it didn't stick well and it didn't add much stability to the fabric either. I have always figured that the time spent fusing interfacing has to be equal to the time spent cross-stitching hair canvas to the wool, and I prefer the results. I have made a few coats with hair canvas and have not been disappointed with it. More hand-sewing for tv time, I figure.


Butterick 5399 is a nice wardrobe pattern, although I will probably only make the jacket from it.

Here is the back view, I particularly like the raglan sleeves, so much more comfortable in a jacket/coat than set-in sleeves.


For now, I am hand-sewing the gimp to the Chanel jacket and am disciplining myself to finish that before starting the coat. Too many projects go unfinished around here, and that is kind of wasteful on my part. A new year, a new resolution.